Tipping Point

by Ali Parker

  Things had been tense, with D discovering the tapes. I was on high alert, and I was doing my job. I deserved a little reward for all my hard work, a reward that wasn’t money.

  I wanted pussy and ass, and I knew Audrey would be willing to give it up to me.

  I pulled out my phone and sent her a quick text.

  “Come over tonight. I’m horny.”

  She’d answer. There was no doubt in my mind that she would answer. I’d shown her a whole other world of pleasure and pain and blown her little mind.

  Fucking cop. She had no idea how big of a mess she was in. She also had no idea the kind of heat she was putting me in. But that was part of the thrill of it all. I knew more than she did. She wasn’t playing this as smart as she should be. The Castalettas were going to eat her up and spit her out, all broken and damaged, and if I was the one they wanted to have take care of it, then I would get the job done.

  I stopped when I got to the front door of our new office as my phone chimed. Expecting it to be Audrey, I looked down at the screen with a cocky grin already stretching my cheeks.

  It wasn’t from Audrey, but rather Demetri. It was one single word that affirmed my suspicions.

  “Rat.”

  Interesting. Demetri knew that Audrey was a cop. When I’d spoken to him about it, he told me that if she was in fact the rat, I was going to have to handle it. Manage her. Use her.

  Or put her down.

  I already had plans on how I wanted to use her, but I would have to shift gears a little bit now. I didn’t mind. I liked a bit of unpredictability every now and then. And this was the perfect time. A bit more thrill wasn’t going to hurt anyone.

  Well, it wasn’t going to hurt me, at least.

  I’d “managed” much bigger fish than the petite blonde cop with a fiery attitude and ignorant recklessness. She should have done her research on me. She should have known whose bed she was climbing into.

  But I was glad she didn’t.

  “Thank God he knows.” I breathed a sigh of relief. The last damn thing I needed was D finding out that I’d been informed of Audrey’s real identity before he was, and I hadn’t coughed up the info. Nothing to worry about now. Bitch got herself caught.

  I pushed through the front doors and emerged into the sunlight. I went straight to my car and got in, slamming the door behind me.

  If I was lucky, Audrey would show up at my place early enough for us to have a little bit of fun between the sheets. I was in need of a good hard fuck, and she wasn’t the kind of girl who would deny me. She’d want it just as bad as I did, and she’d spread her pretty little legs like a good girl for me. Moan my name, suck my sack, and bend over for a long night of taking it hard and fast—just like I liked it.

  Too bad she had to be on the wrong side of the fence. I’d have liked to keep her—as a pet if nothing else.

  7

  Marco

  Bubbles danced up from the bottom of my champagne glass and popped when they reached the surface as I leaned to my left to peer out the airplane window. We had just reached altitude in Adam’s private jet and were heading straight for California.

  For the first time in the last thirty-two hours, I felt like I had a chance of staying alive. Up there, thousands of feet off the ground, nobody could lay a hand on me. Everyone back at the mansion probably had a game plan now, but I had successfully put enough distance between myself and them that I could breathe easily.

  For now. It was short-lived no doubt.

  Adam sat across from me, pinching his own champagne glass between his thumb and forefinger. He was not, however, looking outside as I was. His green eyes were trained on me, and I could feel the intensity of his stare. He had to have questions, and now that he had me alone with nowhere to go, I was sure he was going to ask them.

  Adam cleared his throat and popped open the top two buttons of his white shirt. He loosened his gray tie and sat lower in his seat before licking his lips.

  “So,” Adam said. “Run this whole thing by me again. Just so I can try and swallow the full story one more time.”

  We had gone over everything three times already. He was a man obsessed with details, and I knew he was looking for an opportunity to poke holes in my story. He still didn’t trust me yet, and I couldn’t blame him for that. I’d grown up with the enemy, after all.

  “All right.” I put my champagne down on the table beside me and crossed my ankles. “Freddy and I were not Joe’s kids. My mother had a promiscuous nature to her that none of us knew about. She slept with your father, and it would seem their affairs were ongoing. Me and Freddy were both fathered by your dad. So, I’m your brother.” I shrugged as if my nonchalant attitude would help him accept the insanity of my proposal.

  “Half brother,” Adam corrected.

  “Yes. Half brother. But blood nonetheless.” I lifted my index finger and my eyebrow at the same time, wagging my finger back and forth. “Older half brother.”

  Adam gave me a crooked smile. “Blood only goes so far with men like me and you.”

  I nodded. “Which is why the Castalettas, the ones who are still alive, want my head on a silver platter.”

  Adam sighed and scratched at his chin. “So how did all of this get exposed? I would think you would have had the sense to keep all this under wraps until you had executed your plans.”

  “Fucking Demetri DeMarco,” I growled as I swiped up my champagne and drained the glass. “He was digging too deep. He suspected something. He came for me, but he didn’t think it through enough. Izabella had my back. She stood between us, and she tried to talk him out of it. He wouldn’t listen to reason, so she shot him.”

  “Right,” Adam said. He’d heard all this before, but I could see him running through it all again in his mind. “So Demetri is…”

  “Dead. Possibly. Hopefully.” I didn’t really mean my words, did I? He’d been like a brother to me. Fuck, this was complicated.

  Adam nodded slowly and pursed his lips. He turned his head a fraction of an inch to the side to glance out the window. He watched the clouds float by for a moment before speaking again. He didn’t look at me this time. “And the Kallups? How did they get so deeply involved in this shit? Those boys are too dumb to tell their hands from their feet. They were to be lackies for us, someone who could keep an eye on things, but they were instructed to watch from the outside looking in. Nothing more.”

  I considered playing the fool and telling Adam I didn’t know. But telling a flat out lie would only land me in hot water down the road. It would serve me better to tell only a bit of the truth, enough to satisfy his curiosity and still give me a veil to hide behind.

  “I involved the Kallups to the extent they were involved,” I said, keeping my voice even, my expression slack.

  “Why?”

  “We needed to clean house, and they were the best tool I had access to at the time.”

  Adam drummed his fingers along the side of his champagne glass. I saw it for what it was: a tell that he did not believe me. “But you knew they were connected to me. Why would you implicate your own blood?” A smirk lifted his lips.

  “That’s not what I was trying to do. It was a simple ploy to cause a distraction, and who better to do it than a bunch of thugs in my neighborhood? I didn’t know they were working for you.”

  “But they were.”

  I ignored his comment. “But the fuckers deviated from the plans,” I said before he had a chance to ask another question. “Freddy was never supposed to be…” I trailed off and looked out the window. “Freddy got caught in the middle of it. He was my brother, and I loved him, but his skull was full of sawdust. The Kallups were never supposed to kill him.”

  “But they did,” Adam said matter-of-factly. “Who were they supposed to kill instead?”

  “Like I said, they were supposed to help me clean house. Cleanse. Get rid of the blood lines that weren’t worthy. Demetri and poor Izabella had to go. With them out of the picture, Joe would have had no
choice but to lean on me, and when the time was right, I would take him out too. Then everything would fall into place, and the Coopers would ascend into the Castaletta syndicate to take over. Permanently.”

  Adam finally looked back at me. His expression impossible to read. “And your mother? I heard the details of her murder. It was not a gentle death, and a woman like Vivian Castaletta did not deserve to meet a fate like that. What was your hand in that?”

  I had been waiting for him to ask that question.

  “She was a casualty.”

  “A casualty?” Adam scoffed. “She had a hit on her, Marco. She was raped and murdered.”

  “She was a lying whore that slept with anyone and everyone,” I snarled, leaning forward in my seat. Disgust rose in my belly. All the times I’d walked in on her bringing another man in Joe’s house, the lies she told, the filth she was… I didn’t give a shit if she birthed me. She was trash. “She fucked Terrance and had me. Then she fucked him again and had Freddy. Do you know how many other men she had her way with in between? And Joe? He’s no fucking better. The two of them walked around our house like they were saints deserving of our praise and undying loyalty. But all they were doing was trading one sin for another. Lies. Murder. Adultery. Take your pick.”

  Adam shrugged one shoulder. “I can see how this would disturb you.”

  “It’s a mixed bag of shit,” I growled, slumping back in my chair. The leather creaked beneath me. “It has been for a long time. I just wanted to have a clean slate. I’m sick of being used and beaten and humiliated and—”

  “I get it,” Adam said. “We are both the sons of powerful Dons. Believe me, I get it.”

  I raked my fingers through my hair. “If D hadn’t gotten involved, everything would still be moving along according to plan.”

  “Then you should have planned for him to get involved. He’s not the kind of guy to sit on the sidelines when he smells a rat.”

  “A rat?” I asked, hearing the defensiveness in my own tone.

  Adam looked amused. He got to his feet and went to the bar where the open champagne was sitting in an ice bucket. He pulled it free, and the ice fell gently to the bottom of the bucket. He came back to our seats and topped up my glass.

  “Thank you,” I mumbled. “Sorry for being an ass. This is all just a little fresh still.”

  Adam took his seat and sipped his new drink. “I understand. But a spade is a spade. You betrayed your syndicate. There is no other way to look at it.”

  I paused to analyze him. Was he playing me?

  Adam looked out the window again. “But you betrayed said family, all in the name of mine. You killed your own mother and brother, and you intended to kill that lovely sister of yours. All to help the Coopers come to power in Chicago.” He clicked his tongue. “You have big balls, Marco Castaletta.”

  “Cooper,” I amended.

  Adam laughed. “Not yet. I’m still not sure if I can trust you. Maybe Joe is playing a game and has sent you to me to say all these things. To trick me. To get to my father beyond the grave. I wouldn’t put it past the old bastard.”

  “Neither would I,” I said. “But I assure you, I am here because I want to be.”

  “Not because I’m the only man in the country who can keep you out of the hands of your killer sister and her bloodthirsty boy toy?”

  “It might be a contributing factor,” I admitted and forced a smile.

  Adam leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. The plane did a little hop step in the air as we flew through some mild turbulence, and I tensed. I had never been a calm flyer, and sitting across from a man who would have no qualms about throwing me off the aircraft without a parachute wasn’t helping the nerves. I stifled a swallow and pursed my lips.

  “So, as you said before, the best case scenario is that Izzy succeeded in killing Demetri DeMarco last night?”

  I nodded.

  “Why?”

  “She’ll be a mess if the guy is dead. She won’t be coming after me for days. Maybe longer.”

  “But Joe will.”

  I shrugged. “Or he’ll send someone to take out the trash for him. He’d be just as crippled as Izzy. He’s always treated Demetri as more of a son than me.”

  “Like I said,” Adam mused. “Blood only goes so far for men like me and you. But I’ll admit, it would be nice to not have to worry about your sister’s guard dog. Not that she needs one.”

  “She doesn’t,” I agreed. “Izabella is more than capable of protecting herself.”

  “One of the many reasons why she is still alive, I suspect. Did you have plans on taking her out as well? Perhaps in a similar way to how you put down your mother?” Adam was fishing for more answers than I was willing to give him. He was asserting his dominance with his position of leaning forward and encroaching on my personal space, and he was maintaining unwavering eye contact.

  I lifted my champagne to my lips and took a long slow sip. I smacked my lips when I was done and nodded once. “I did not wish that kind of pain for my sister. When it happens, it will be quick. She deserves at least that.”

  Adam analyzed me a moment longer before leaning back in his seat. “Very well. Let’s discuss the terms of the Cooper syndicate moving in on the Castalettas’ turf. I’m willing to hear your plans now. But let me tell you one thing, Marco.”

  “Yes?”

  He made me wait a while before answering me. He gazed out the window for at least fifteen seconds before his gaze slid slowly back to me.

  “If you betray me or my family, I’ll cut you down without mercy. Do you understand?”

  I had been waiting for this threat. I nodded. “Yes. I understand.”

  “Good. Now, tell me, where do we start?”

  8

  Audrey

  “Come over tonight. I’m horny.”

  The text from Marcus had my heart rate racing as I sat on the patio of a cute little coffee shop where I was supposed to meet my partner, Mike. He had called a few minutes prior to the text coming in to let me know he was leaving the precinct and was running fifteen minutes late.

  To kill time, I ordered a cappuccino, and by the time I found a chair in the sunshine, my phone chimed again, and I found myself staring down at the brief, to the point message from Marcus.

  Heat rushed down below my belly to pool between my legs, my pussy tightening and growing damp. I shifted uncomfortably. Damn him for having such power over my body. And damn him for thinking it was acceptable to send me such a crude message. There was no beating around the bush with the man. He got what he wanted, no matter what, and I hated that I didn’t have the self-control to deny him.

  The last time we’d fucked had been too good. His massive cock had been almost more than I could take, but once we got started, my body opened up to him like a flower in the sun, desperate for his touch.

  I slipped the phone back in my purse and sighed. I would go to him like a whore who needed her fix, as he knew I would. At least one thing was for certain. I’d get my fix.

  Sipping the foam off the top of my drink, I looked both ways down the street. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the sidewalks were covered in pink and white petals. Everyone who had parked their cars along the curb would have to dust the petals from their windshields before hitting the road.

  I spotted Mike coming and watched him parallel park beneath one of said cherry blossoms. He got out of his cruiser and hopped up the curb to hurry over to me. He was dressed in blue jeans and a white polo shirt. His sports sunglasses and white running shoes made him look like a soccer grandpa, and I didn’t say anything about it. He dropped down into the seat across from me with an exasperated breath.

  “So sorry, Julie. I got held up at the precinct. Thanks for waiting. God, it’s nice to see you. How are you?”

  I smiled. It was good to see Mike too. He was like an anchor for me, being removed from all the Castaletta bullshit, even if our last few conversations had been a little off. “I’m good. How ar
e things back at the station?”

  “We’re managing. I miss having my partner around.”

  I grinned. “I miss having you around, too. Not having someone to watch my back out here really sucks. Too bad you couldn’t have gone undercover as a hooker with me.”

  Mike chuckled. “Don’t say shit like that. You and I both know I’d make a better slut than you.”

  “That’s true. We do know that.”

  He gave me a crooked smile, which faltered.

  “Something’s wrong,” I stated.

  He looked down at my coffee like there was something in its creamy foam that could help him avoid answering me. After several seconds, he concluded that no such help would come from the drink, so he looked back up at me and nodded.

  “Someone has been looking into your files. We got an alert this morning that the system was hacked. That’s why I was late.”

  “Shit.” I sighed, slumping back in my chair. I picked absently at the brand decal on my to-go coffee cup. “It’s all right. I know someone’s been looking into me. I have to be careful.”

  “Yes, you do. You know, I can try like hell to pull you out of this. You’ve done enough and—”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I’m getting close to figuring this shit out. Just give me a bit more time.”

  Mike bit the inside of his cheek but nodded. “All right.”

  I moved forward to rest my elbow on the table. “I think Jon Armstrong is involved.”

  “Oh?” Mike arched an eyebrow.

  “He’s sleeping with Izabella Castaletta. Has been for a few weeks, maybe more. I’m not completely sure. But she’s too fucking smart to fall for a cop. She’s using him. I’m sure of it. I’m also positive he wouldn’t deny her. Look into him, will you?”

  “Of course. I’ll bust his ass today. Thanks for the tip. It’ll be nice to finally make some concrete progress. Get the higher-ups off our backs.” Mike ran his hands over his knees. “You’re sure you don’t want to pull out now? With someone looking into you, I don’t like the direction this is going. We may not have much time left. Your safety is in jeopardy here, Julie.”